The Ingredients: A Guided Tour of the Elements

This companion volume to "Stories of the Invisible: A Guided Tour of Molecules" looks at how our ideas about the fundamental constitution of matter have evolved through the ages, from the four classical elements of Aristotle to the creation of new, artificial elements in the particle-smashing machines of physics laboratories.

This companion volume to "Stories of the Invisible" looks at how our ideas about the fundamental constitution of matter have evolved through the ages, from the four classical elements of Aristotle to the creation of new, artificial elements in the particle-smashing machines of physics laboratories. It explores the many and varied roles that elements play in our culture, from the gold of Midas and the alchemists to the silicon of the Information Age.